Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Masochism

Marty Burns has the Timberwolves last in his power ranking. Bill Simmons predicts they'll finish with the worst record. So why am I so excited to start following the Wolves' season?

It's probably because they're so much like the Wolves teams I grew up with. For a while in the 90s, I was watching every T-Wolves game I possibly could. Doug West. Christian Laettner. Chuck Person. Man, those teams were bad. Every year preseason stories focused on whether the Wolves were capable of breaking the franchise record for wins in a season (it was 29). Of course, they never did (and the next season routinely got a lottery pick that left them just missing out on really good players).

Now the Wolves are like that. Nobody thinks they'll be any good at all. A lot of people think they'll be the worst team in the league. They've got all these young players that we recognize but that have never been any good.

Gone is the man, the myth, the legend, the big ticket and face of the franchise, the soul we knew and understood, the spirit that spoke to us, the athlete whose very movements and demeanor seeped into our beings, Kevin Garnett. I understood KG's movements. I knew the looks on his face. They were familiar.

And now it's new. And apparently everybody thinks it will suck.

I don't think it will be quite that bad, and that there's enough hope to make a surprise. I'm ready to root for Sebastian Telfair to become the next great NBA point guard. A part of me really believes it will happen. Why not? Why couldn't it happen? Is this just another Great Pumpkin?

When I look at the roster, I see all sorts of young players that could be good and are worth rooting for. Telfair. Jefferson. Foye. McCants. Smith. Brewer. Green.

Why not? The last three seasons felt heavy. This season feels light. That's all I can say. Let's have some fun.

Root for Foye to ascend. Root for Root for McCants to be what we thought he might be, root for Brewer's gangly arms and hope that Jefferson is 3/5ths of Garnett, but as a Portland resident, I'm warning you not to get anywhere near Sebastian Telfair.

Big Al is for real. A slithery inside scorer, if he develops any kind of face-up game you have a 23 year-old going for 23 and 12 on the regular. With Craig Smith at the high post (where he used to play in BC's flex offense) the Wolves have a nice inside scoring duo. And of course there's Antoine to jack threes and turn the ball over.